


The Same Forever

by alexcyprin (Megatraven)



Series: Silver and Gold [16]
Category: Labyrinths of Astoria (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, Becoming mortal, Gen, Giving Up Immortality, Heartbreak, Memory Loss, Other, Sacrifice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:20:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24706720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megatraven/pseuds/alexcyprin
Summary: In which Alex gives up their immortality, the divinity in their blood, so that they might share the same forever with their love.
Relationships: Alex Cyprin & Aphrodite, Alex Cyprin/Main Character
Series: Silver and Gold [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1572766
Kudos: 5





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the first line of Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls which I was listening to in the car this morning on my way to work

“Are you sure you want this, dear hart?” the goddess asks them, and there’s something pained in the way that she says it, like she’s pleading for them to reconsider.

But Alex won’t. They can’t. 

Every time they think about the future, it only breaks their heart a little more.

Their forever was different from hers.

Theirs was eternity, infinity, and hers was, what? Eighty years? Ninety? A hundred, if they were lucky.

It was something that hurt them from the very beginning, when they first realized it. She was their best friend before anything else, before they even realized that they were in love with her.

They always knew they would outlive her.

That they would stay relatively young in appearance, and that she would grow older and older, as humans did.

It hit them hardest after her mother died.

That was the moment that made them take a step back and realize what it meant to be close to a human. It showed them just how death could touch Olympus when it was seemingly above such things before.

(Their mother cried for months, and even ten years later, she still wasn’t as bright as she had been.)

Their situation wasn’t quite the same as their mother’s, though.

For one thing, Alex was much younger, not having the same experiences their mother did. For another, Alex had known MC for almost all their life.

They’d grown up alongside her, and there was barely a time in they could remember where she _wasn’t_ there.

And then they’d both _really_ grown up. They got jobs at HERA, reconnected over work, became something _more_ when she was the only one Alex could trust. By that point, she’d already had their heart and soul- they’d gladly given it to her, long before they even hoped that she might love them, too.

So, they asked, if she already owned what was most important to them, what would happen when she died?

The answer they’d come to was as such: they would die with her, or live only to never be whole again.

It’s what ultimately pushed their decision, then.

If MC would live and die as a human did, then that’s what Alex wanted, too. They wanted a life just as long as hers, not one that would stretch out centuries past her time.

Their mind was already made up when they talked to MC about it, and they knew she was worried, knew she was afraid that if, by some unfortunate circumstance, something happened to either of them, that they would blame her for their mortal lifespan. They knew that she would support them anyways, if it was what they truly wanted.

And it was.

Which brings them to their mother’s almost-plea.

“I’m sure, mother. I’m more sure of this, now, than I’ve been of anything else.” They pour their heart into their words, all the joys and the pains and the in-betweens, so that she knows they mean it.

“You won’t be able to get it back,” she warns, but it doesn’t dissuade them.

“I know.” Alex takes her hands in theirs and stares up into her eyes- the deep amaranth the same as their own. They squeeze her fingers, and will her to understand, even though it hurts to hurt her. “I want this. I _need_ it.”

She looks back at them, and in _their_ eyes, she finds their resolve. She hears their heart, their very soul, asking her for this one favor when they’ve never truly asked for anything else.

She understands.

And when Alex leaves Olympus that night, it’s with deep brown eyes, and a completely human heart.


	2. Interim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When half of yourself is taken, what consequences do you face? Alex finds out first hand, although they don't realize it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by the ask I got after posting the first part which said, "What if becoming fully human had consequences? They lost their memory and it wasn't coming back."

To lose their divinity was to lose themself.

In a way, they knew that. They’d spent their entire life with the blood of gods in their veins. It shaped them, made them who they were.

And they knew, that having it taken out, having that immortality in them fade away- they knew it might have consequences.

An earlier death, yes. They were prepared for that.

Their aura wouldn’t be the same, if they’d keep it at all. They wouldn’t be so strong, their tolerance to alcohol and caffeine would weaken, they wouldn’t be able to go so long without sleeping.

The list could go on and on, but they didn’t care- they were ready for all of it, if it meant that they didn’t have to live an eternity without the woman they loved so fully that they feared their heart couldn’t hold all of it.

They’d asked a few of the gods before doing it, just to be sure they had everything right, but the thing was-

None could remember ever stripping another of their divine status. Not any one person that didn’t turn into an animal or some kind of tree, in any case.

“I’m sure,” they’d said. “This is what I want.”

And they had closed their eyes, felt their mother’s kind aura wash over them, felt it sink into their skin and grab hold of the blood that they shared with her, pulling out its immortality.

It was easy. Gentle.

It didn’t hurt at all.

And when her hands left their own, they heard her say, in such a sad tone that their heart nearly broke from it,

“It’s done.”

They opened their eyes, and took in the world before they let their eyes land on the woman before them.

She was familiar, somehow, but they couldn’t say that they recognizes her. She was beyond gorgeous, and they could only guess that she was the source of that sad, sad voice.

“Are you alright?” they asked, because they wanted to be sure, before they might add to whatever ailed her.

She smiled sweetly at them, though they could tell it wasn’t a true smile. Still, it sent their heart pounding painfully in their chest, and for the life of them, they didn’t understand _why_ she made them feel so mournful.

“I’m fine, little hart,” she said, and they breathed easier for it. They didn’t think she was one to lie.

“Then, if you wouldn’t mind my asking...” They look around once more. “Where am I, and who exactly are you?”

The woman before them freezes, and whatever sorrow she’d been holding back springs forth tenfold, but they can’t stop themself now- they have to ask it.

“Who am _I?”_


	3. The Stranger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MC waits for Alex to come back down from Olympus, but it's not her Alex that comes through the doors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by the ask that was sent after the Last chapter posted: "Can you imagine MC running to hug Alex and they pull away from the stranger hugging them? Her heart would SHATTER."

She paces in front of HERA waiting for them to come back out.

They’d told her she didn’t have to wait, but, well... she couldn’t think to do anything else. There was no way she’d be able to focus on anything when they were getting their divinity stripped from them that night.

So she paces.

And she’s so caught up in her thoughts, her what-ifs, that she almost misses it as they leave the building.

There’s something off about them, now. She can see their eyes are brown, similar to hers, and that they don’t walk quite the same way, but she knows _something_ would change with the loss of their godly power, so it wasn’t all surprising.

Smiling brightly, she called out for them and ran up, throwing her arms around them.

“Alex! How’d it go? Are you feeling alright?”

When they don’t answer, she knows something’s wrong. It takes a moment to set in- their silence, the stiffness of their body, the way they act like they might pull away from her if she didn’t let go soon.

It’s like being dunked in a tub of ice water, and she lets them go, stepping back from them.

“Alex?”

They meet her eyes, but she’s never seen them before; they’re the eyes of a stranger.

They frown at her, looking shaken and confused.

“Alex, what’s wrong?”

Her heart is pounding in her chest, any relief she’d had at seeing them come back down turns into dread. She reaches a hand out to them- her touch could always give them some comfort- but they step away from her, and it _hurts_.

“I’m sorry, miss,” they say, and it nearly stops her heart. “I think you’ve got the wrong person.”

Stunned, all she can do is mutter a broken, “What?”

Alex shifts from one foot to the other, uncomfortable, and it takes everything in her not to scream at them, to curse them for thinking something like this is funny, but-

She knows.

In the deepest depths of her heart, she knows.

It’s not some prank gone wrong, taken too far. It’s not something temporary, that’ll go away when they wake up the next morning.

She looks into their eyes again, and there’s nothing in them other than their own frustration. There’s no warmth there, no love that was reserved for only her, no joy, no recognition, no... anything.

“Look, all I know is that the kind woman upstairs told me there was an accident. She gave me my address and helped me with my name, but I don’t know anything else about what’s going on, and I’d really like to just get home. Please.”

It’s the ‘please’ that breaks her.

Tears come unbidden, and she can hardly hold back her sobs as she stares at them, a shadow of the person they were, the person she loved. Her heart shatters in her chest, and she would pick up every single piece and give it to them if that’s what it took to bring Alex back to her.

She knows it’s not fair, what she’s about to ask. That it’s painful for her, and uncomfortable for them, but she has to know for sure. She has to hear them say it, no matter how it will crush her soul, no matter how she’ll lose a part of herself forever at what she knows they’ll say.

“Just, please- Alex, please. Don’t you remember me?” She snatches their hands in hers and squeezes for all she’s worth, stepping back into their space, trying to find any hint of familiarity in their face. “Don’t you remember us? Our life? The future we wanted together?”

Her voice breaks on the last word, and the weight of what she was losing brings her to her knees. She sobs, with her entire body, and it’s an ugly, terrible, heart-wrenching thing.

Alex moves, too.

They pulls their hands away, and for a moment, she thinks they’ll leave her there- but they don’t. They slide down to the ground in front of her and, though hesitant, they wrap their arms around her.

“I’m sorry, I really am,” they murmur, and she can tell that they mean it. “I don’t remember you. I don’t even remember _me_.”

They take a breath, and for a wonderful, torturous second, she can almost pretend that everything is normal, before they continue and the illusion shatters.

“I don’t know if I was that person you think I was. I don’t know if I’ll ever be them again.” She feels them shift, turning their head up to the sky before they pull away again, rising to their feet. They hold out a hand to her, and she takes it, if only to feel their touch one more time, letting them pull her to her feet. “But I know that it’s about to rain, and I should get home. You should, too.”

Before she can muster any other response, they turn away from her, a perfect stranger, and walk away.

It’s only when she’s watched them disappear from view that the full weight of what they said hits her, and a fresh round of tears come up.

“But... it was _our_ home.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Comments and Kudos appreciated!
> 
> If you'd like to request something, or just talk about lovestruck in general, you can send an ask to my sideblog @official-alex-cyprin or my main @megatraven on tumblr! Any requests I receive for characters I haven't met/played through yet will be saved in my inbox until I have met/played them!


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